Monday, October 26, 2015

Hello dear friends and family. The skies are officially grey here in the
Evergreen state! AND its Halloween this week! CRAZY!!! I hope everyone
has fun trick-or-treating, dressing up, and having fun with those you
love :)

I don't have tons of time today, but I just wanted to check in with
everyone and say how grateful I am to have the family and friends that I
have. I am so grateful for everyone who has supported me, given me
counsel, made me laugh, and made me feel of God's love. In one way or
another, that should include everyone. Being on a mission has really
opened my eyes to how much God has blessed me throughout every phase of
my life, and how much power we have to help those around us recognize
that.

We had a great week in the Crossroads Branch, and we had the
awesome opportunity of going to the annual Hispanic Conference! It was a
blast! :) so fun being together to celebrate this beautiful Hispanic
culture! We had investigators and tons of less actives that were able to
come, and it was just awesome! We also had many miracles in finding new
investigators and finding some people who had gone missing from the
branch's radar for a little bit. Heavenly Father never loses track of
His sheep, and when we have the desire to help THEM find HIM again, He
will bless us with so many miracles along the path.

I love you all so much, and I hope you have a great week! I PROMISE
to send pictures next week. Literally, my camera just died in the
parking lot of the library. Hasta Luego!!

I love you all so much! And I wish I was better at being able to
tell you all of the amazing experiences and adventures that I have every
week. This week was soo full of them! But alas, I do not have the time
nor the ability to fit it all in. So I will just share a few of my
favorites :)

First of all, I LOVE Hermana Hargis. She makes me delicious food,
makes me laugh, and really just knows how to be a great missionary. I
really don't feel like I am training her AT ALL. I mean, yes, she is a
little older and has a lot more life experience that pretty much all of
us missionaries here. But she really is just super awesome, and she
brings miracles with her. Literally we have been able to find more less
actives in the past 2 weeks than pretty much every other time I have
been here! And she just really loves all of these people so much. It is
always really stressful bringing someone new into your personal
experiences and world because you just don't know if they will love
everyone like you do. But I have no worries with Hermana Hargis :) I
love it!!

Also, I finally got to play soccer with the branch again!!! (last
Saturday is rained a lot, so the activity was cancelled). And guess
what?! After 3 months of not playing, I actually wasn't too bad!!
Seriously, one of my biggest regrets from my pre-mission life was not
learning how to play soccer. Who knew that it was a necessary skill to
be a missionary :) AND! What is super awesome is that the branch loves
to invite their friends to these activities, so we are always getting
introduced to new people to teach! The challenge is actually getting
them to become new investigators, but either way, it is awesome how much
our members want their friends to be involved.

Okay, and here is for my favorite part of the entire week.
Yesterday, we had our monthly Member-Missionary Fireside, and a very
wonderful person got to share his testimony with the congregation! That
is right everyone, John Keihnle from the Duvall ward. Oh my goodness,
when he walked in I about jumped out of my seat and ran to him! AND HE
GREW A BEARD!! but oh my goodness, his testimony was so powerful. I wish
I could have recorded it!! It was so amazing, because he bore his
testimony about the Book of Mormon. He told everyone about how when he
first met us, he told us that he didn't need the church because God
already talked to him all of the time. When we asked him what God told
him, he told us that we would think he was crazy (its true, we really
did). He told us that God had told him to get a bow and arrow and leave
to the wilderness.... Now for any of you not familiar with the Book of
Mormon, there are some great stories of men who receive similar counsel
from God (see I Nephi 16) and so obviously he had to read it! He was
having a hard time finding time to read, and so when we found the app
that he could listen to it, that is when everything changed. My favorite
part about hearing him tell the story of our teaching, was when he said
in his very soft voice, "I pushed play that night and I dont think I
hit the stop button until I hit the book of Alma" (Alma is halfway
through the Book). The whole room just kind of sat in awe at him. All of
the missionaries let out an awe-filled "ooohhhh" Literally John
listened to the whole Book of Mormon in like 3 days. And then 3 weeks
later he was baptized. And he was so filled with light and love last
night that I am still on cloud 9. There is something so special about
sharing the gospel with someone. It binds people together, and makes us
more than just friends, but family. There are many dear people in my
life who I consider family, my best friends, teachers, and role models,
and so many incredible people from my most amazing mission. I love being
a missionary so much. God loves us so much, and it is only up to us to
go and find the amazing miracles, peole like John Keihnle who are our
neighbors, friends, co-workers, and strangers that need what we have.
They need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much, and I hope you have an amazing week. I pray
that you will not be afraid to reach out, love one another, and share
what makes you happy.

Sooo... last week was transfers, which is why I wasn't able to send out
any emails. AND YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED! I have no idea how
exciting this for any of you at home, but needless to say, it was a
little crazy for me up here in Washington :)

For the second time, I have been sent BACK to the Crossroads
Spanish Branch!!!! Yes, that is right. I have served in Bellevue three
times now, and I only come to love it more and more every time I come
back :) also, I was released as Sister-Training Leader, but then called
to be a trainer of a new missionary for the third time as well! It was a
lot of change. But I am sooo grateful for all of the time I had as a
STL, because it has given me so much experience that I could not have
gained any other way. I know that God has been preparing me for this new
assignment for a while, and as soon as I found out what was happening, I
knew that it was inspired of my loving Heavenly Father.

Let me tell you all about my new companion!! Her name is Hermana
Hargis, and she is from Kansas City, Kansas. She is not your typical
sister missionary. She actually was called to the Washington Seattle
Mission back in 2009, when she was injured in the MTC and was sent home
where she ended up having 4 major shoulder surgeries! She is now 29
years old, and was called to come back to the SAME mission as her
original call!! She finally made it :) haha she is sooo incredible! She
was a paramedic for something like 8 years, and she has so many amazing
stories. Never
a dull moment with her :) I am so terrible, because I don't have any
pictures yet of us together, but I PROMISE to have some by next week :)

A quick update on the branch: everything is different. The Chavez
family are still amazing though!! They are in the heart of everything
that goes on in the branch now and they are just INCREDIBLE!! A lot of
people have moved out and some new faces have come in, and Hermana
Hargis and I have a goal to visit/find every single person in our branch
list this transfer :) wish us luck!!

and OH MY GOODNESS the branch is competing in a volleyball
tournament in the stake. and they come to the church to practice every
week WITH a coach and basically our friday night voleibol activities
have definitely upped their game. haha it is so awesome! More updates to
come :)

Overall, I have been learning a lot about the Atonement lately and
how it works in our every day lives. I know that the Lord qualifies who
He calls, and that includes me. Often, I have been very discouraged
because of the mistakes I have made, the lack of qualifications I have,
and the increasing pile of things in my "must-do" list, but I have been
reminded over and over again that the Lord really does take us exactly
the way we are. I loved that message that rang true to me in General
Conference 2 weeks ago. As President Uchtdorf put it, we do not have to
be more of anything. We just need to tell the Lord that we are ready and
willing and He will come to where we are and walk with us the rest of
the way. I love knowing that that is true, and even when I doubt that it
is, I am constantly surrounded by those friends and family who remind
me :)

I love being a missionary. I love that the Lord knows exactly what
we need, when we need it. He really does loves us sooo much and takes
every opportunity to show us that. I hope you all have an amazing week,
and I hope that you all have the opportunity to ponderize something from
the scriptures :) This week, my scripture is Doctrine and Covenant
123:17. Go find yours! :)

About Me

Hi there, my name is Sierra Brooks. I have been called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Seattle Washington. I will be teaching the gospel in the Spanish language. I am so excited for this amazing opportunity, and I am excited to share my experiences with all of you!! The Church is true! For more information please visit www.mormon.org